City to publish guide on South Side's renovation policy

Officials aim to ease confusion over rules in conservation district.

The confusion and nervousness that some south Bethlehem business owners feel about keeping their renovations in sync with the eclectic flavor of the neighborhood could soon become a thing of the past.

The city will publish a set of guidelines property owners must adhere to when undertaking renovations in the commercial corridor, a requirement of the 4-year-old South Bethlehem Conservation District.

The publication, courtesy of a recent $8,520 state grant, won't change the standards owners must meet to improve their properties, but it gives owners more guidance before they submit their project plans.

Right now, South Side property owners have few resources to consult before going before the city commission that reviews renovation proposals in the conservation district along Third and Fourth streets, and between Wyandotte and Hayes streets.

"It can be intimidating, and I say that as a perspective from someone who sits on the [South Bethlehem Conservation District] commission," Tony Silvoy said. "You don't have a list of guidelines in front of you, and you don't know what the commission is going to say. It can be confusing."

Silvoy, the owner of Goosey Gander II deli, recently presented plans to add a second story to his building at 104 W. Fourth St. With no training as a builder or degree in historical architecture, Silvoy said he went into the meetings nervous, unaware if the sliding glass windows he wanted were consistent with nearby buildings.

As it turned out, the windows aren't consistent, and he did some minor revisions to please the commission. While the collaborative process was not bad, he said it was cause for a lot of nervousness for a businessman who must always keep in mind the bottom line.

The publication, which will be bid out in August, is similar to what the city's North Side Historic District has had for years. But instead of calling for such things as six-panel entrance doors of early Victorian style as required on the north side, the South Side's guidelines will monitor the compatibility of the eclectic architecture from 1900 through the 1950s.

"When people think of historical, they think of the 1700s Washington-slept-here sort of building, but that's not true," Silvoy said. "We have historic buildings on the South Side that we want to keep and some were built just 50 years ago."

The publication is a project the city had been aiming to do since 2000 -- after the conservation district was formed. The city had secured a $14,000 state grant, but money was returned because the project could not be coordinated before the grant expired.

Dana Grubb, deputy director of community development, said the free booklet will not change the process on the South Side, just give people more direction. The benchmarks that applicants must reach are the same since the city formed the conservation district in 1999.

Still, the guidelines are not as stringent as what property owners in the north side must meet. That historic district is on the federal registry, whereas the conservation district is just local.

The city created the district four years ago to preserve the flavor of the South Side's character, giving the city power to regulate demolition, new construction and major renovations in the South Side commercial district.

South Bethlehem preservationists first began planning a district to protect the commercial district's character, but intensified efforts in 1998 when CVS built a pharmacy on Broadway that some residents say was not compatible with the neighborhood. Today, the commission hears between two to five cases a month.

"It's a fairly new process," Silvoy said. "It's understandable that people wouldn't know what to do."

But some business owners say shopkeepers shouldn't worry. Sal Basile, who is opening an Italian restaurant, said that the commissioners were able to walk him through the process while he was preparing to renovate 313 S. New St. The commission helped him understand that the front door and windows were important to keeping the character of the 103-year-old building.

"I think we came out of the meeting with a really good plan," Basile said.